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An important Meissen circular stand circa 1725-30
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Find your local specialistAn important Meissen circular stand
Superbly painted in enamels and Böttger lustre with a central scene of a chinoiserie figure flanked by flowering indianische Blumen and rockwork enclosed by iron-red circles and a broad band of gilt foliate scrollwork, the rim with four gilt-edged quatrelobe chinoiserie cartouches edged with Böttger lustre and iron-red scrollwork, separated by gilt foliate scrollwork, the reverse with trailing indianische Blumen and butterflies, 22.2cm diam., crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue
Footnotes
Provenance:
Anon. sale, Sotheby's London, 16 June 1987, lot 97;
Acquired in the above sale
Literature:
Hoffmeister 1999, I, no. 50;
Lübke 2008, pp.10-16
Exhibited:
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1999-2009
This circular stand is notable not only for the exceptional quality of the chinoiserie painting, but also for the intriguing 'HO' monogram painted in iron-red on the reverse above the crossed swords. See Dieter Hoffmeister's discussion of the piece (Hoffmeister 1999, I, pp. 96-97), including the theory first advanced by Dr. Ingelore Menzhausen, that the monogram could be read 'JCHO' for the painter, Johann Christoph Horn, who was active at the manufactory from 1720. The acquisition of this and a similar stand with the same mark (Hoffmeister 1999, I, no. 49) led to the discovery of the matching tureens and covers, both marked with the same monogram. One, from the collection of the 19th-century Dresden collector, Carl Spitzner, is in the Dresden porcelain collection in the Zwinger (Inv. nr. PE 1504, illustrated by Pietsch 1996, no. 134, and Lübke 2008, ill. 9), and the other is in the Giuseppe Gianetti Collection in Saronno, which was formed in the 1930s and 1940s (Bruni / Molfino 1994, no. 59).
Diethard Lübke has recently discussed the tureens and stands in detail (see Literature), including the monogram. He argues (pp. 10-16) against the idea that HO is a painter's signature, not least because several hands including the gilder's are involved, and suggests that the monogram signifies that the tureens and their stands were prizes awarded during the Dresden carnival season. If the monogram is read not as 'H' and 'O', but as representing the zodiac sign of Pisces and the sun, respectively, the 'monogram' can be seen as emblematic of the sun in the constellation of Pisces, that is between 20-21 February and the 20th March, which is when the Dresden carnival took place. In this reading, the sun can also stand for Augustus the Strong, presumably the donor of the prize. Lübke also cites the example of Vienna, where prizes such as porcelain tureens and stands were regularly awarded in shooting contests, and were considered worthy of the Empress herself.
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